Do you ever think about how weird it is to love sewing so much year after year? For me, it is as if it has a voodoo-like hold over me, I swear. I tire of other stuff easily…foods, hobbies, TV shows. A few years ago we discovered a beautiful recipe for roasted broccoli and shrimp and it was AMAZING. We ate it almost every week for a while and then, POOF, I couldn’t even look at it. I just didn’t want it anymore…like ever! I have everything I need to do screen printing and I enjoy it every once in a while but only in small doses and then I need to move on. I fell in love with decorating envelopes and sending pretty letters during college but that love burned bright and fast and I’ve never gotten back to it. But sewing is not like that. In the end, I just circle back to sewing. Every. Time. Without it I feel starved of something. I was reflecting on this the other day and realized the magic of sewing is that there is always something new to explore. It’s like these doors keep opening and behind each one is yet another thing I can make for myself because…..sewing.
Well behind the door this time are shoes. Did you hear that the first time? SHOES! Magic fairy dust sprinkled down from the heavens when I made these espadrille shoes. I didn’t even know you could make your own espadrille shoes until I saw the soles for sale in a fabric shop! I was immediately smitten.
But, here it is and now I’m preaching the espadrille shoe gospel and happily living in DIY shoe world.
First of all, making shoes is great because you are making shoes. That is the most important fact to assert. Coming in a close second? There is great excitement about the fact that you don’t need a lot of fabric so you can use the pretty stuff. For this pair, I used pretty and precious Umbrella Prints fabrics (and by the looks of it, they are going out of business!! No! Buy what you can now!).
The shoe soles are sold as a kit, complete with a pattern and instructions. You have to purchase them in your size, they have everything from tiny kid feet to adult size 10, and also buy espadrille sewing needles and the yarn. (Urban Sewciety has shoe soles in their shop, available right now.)
Then the rest is up to you…constructing the fabric upper and stitching it to the shoe sole. It’s really satisfying.
In fact, my shoe making enthusiasm is so high that I’m going to be doing lots of teaching. I am teaching a class at Urban Sewciety on March 9th! (It will actually be my third time teaching Espadrilles.)
And in April I will teaching them TWICE at Craftcation!
I told you, I’m feeling the magic.
Special thanks to my gorgeous friend Laura for being my model. Mwah!
Note: This post contains affiliate links meaning your purchase supports both an independent creative conference and also me. Thanks!
auschick says
That is so awesome! My mom learned to make shoes, but leather ones that required molding it over a shoe mold thing from a shoemaking expert in Tasmania, Australia. She says they are her most comfortable shoes ever! Definitely worth checking into if ever you find yourself in that part of the world! http://www.lunaboots.com/
Melissa Q. says
Oh my gosh, that would be so cool!! I would love to travel to Australia and learn how to make shoes. #lifegoals
amy frey says
I have a pair of closed-toe espadrilles. Is there a way to cut them to make them peep toe? (My sister brought them back from France for me, and they’re a touch too small.)
Melissa Q. says
Hmm. Difficult to diagnose this from afar. I think you might want to bring them to a cobbler if you have one nearby.